Room capture and projection

ABSTRACT

Examples associated with room capture and projection are disclosed. One example includes an information management module that may maintain information regarding a virtual space and a first digital object within the virtual space. The first digital object may be associated with an artifact in a physical space. A room calibration module may map the virtual space to the physical space using sensors to detect attributes of the physical space. A capture module may record a modification to the artifact to be maintained by the information management module. A projection module may project a representation of a second digital object into the physical space. The representation may be projected based on a signal from the information management module.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/688,644, filed on Nov. 19, 2019, which is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 15/547,656, filed on Jul. 31, 2017 andentitled “Room Capture and Projection”, which is a national stageapplication pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 371 of International Application No.PCT/US2015/013738, filed Jan. 30, 2015, the disclosures thereofincorporated by reference herein in their entirety.

BACKGROUND

There are two main ways that meetings take place, depending primarily onwhether there is a single, appropriate space that is accessible to allparties. If such a space is available, the meeting may be held in thatspace. If such a space is not available, (e.g., because all availablespaces are too small to fit all parties, the parties are spread acrossgreat distances), then some form of teleconferencing system may be used.These teleconferencing systems work by transmitting, for example, video,slides, audio, and so forth, to other locations simultaneously so thatparticipants can engage in synchronous communication.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present application may be more fully appreciated in connection withthe following detailed description taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, in which like reference characters refer to likeparts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example room, people, and artifacts on whichexample apparatuses, systems, and methods, and equivalents, may operate.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example apparatus associated with room capture andprojection.

FIG. 3 illustrates another example apparatus associated with roomcapture and projection.

FIG. 4 illustrates a flowchart of example operations associated withroom capture and projection.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example system associated with room capture andprojection.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example computing device in which example systems,apparatuses, and methods, and equivalents, may operate.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Apparatuses, systems, methods, and equivalents associated with roomcapture and projection are described. Room capture and projection may beachieved by calibrating a physical space to a virtual space, capturingartifacts in the physical space as digital objects in the virtual space,and projecting digital objects from the virtual space to the physicalspace. The calibration, capture, and projection may be performed by adevice that stores the virtual space or that is in communication with aserver storing the virtual space. Calibrating the physical space to thevirtual space may facilitate matching attributes of the physical spaceto attributes of the virtual space. For example, if the virtual spacehas digital objects on three walls of the virtual space, and thephysical space is a room with four walls, one of which is covered withwindows, the walls of the virtual space may be oriented for capture andprojection purposes so they correspond to the three non-windowed wallsof the physical space.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example room, people, and artifacts on whichexample systems and methods, and equivalents, may operate. It should beappreciated that the items depicted in FIG. 1 are illustrative examplesand many different features and implementations are possible.

FIG. 1 illustrates a room 100. Room 100 may be, for example, aconference room. Room 100 contains a device 110. Device 110 may containequipment for capturing (e.g., video cameras, high-resolution stillimage cameras, microphones, motion sensors) actions of people 120 inroom 100 as the people 120 interact with artifacts 130 in room 100.Artifacts 130 may include, for example, physical objects and digitalcontent elements available for interaction in room 100. Physical objectsmay include, for example, note cards, flip charts, models, writing on awhiteboard, and other objects physically present in room 100. Digitalcontent elements may include items projected or displayed in room 100(e.g., presentation slides, a television screen). In some instances itmay also be appropriate to treat people 120 as artifacts. Treatingpeople 120 as artifacts may facilitate capturing actions andinteractions of people 120 with other people 120 and with artifacts 130in room 100.

Device 110 may also contain equipment for projecting (e.g., projectors)or otherwise displaying images including projected people 125 andprojected digital objects 135 into room 100. The digital objects 135 andpeople 125 projected into room 100 may be, for example, stored on device110 or at a network or Internet location accessible to device 110 inassociation with a virtual space. Projecting digital objects 135 andpeople 125 into room 100 may facilitate review and/or interaction withthe projected people 125 and the projected digital objects 135. Thus,the projected people 125 and projected digital objects may be projectedbased on previous recording, simultaneous recording (e.g., a projectionof a person or artifact being captured in real time), a combination ofthe above, and so forth.

As used herein, a virtual space may be a representation of a room thatis maintained as data in a data store (e.g., locally within device 110,at a server remote from device 110). Several digital objects may beassociated with each virtual space. Each digital object may beassociated with an artifact that was at one point stored in the digitalspace (e.g., by capturing an artifact from a physical space, creating adigital object from a web page or video). Maintaining individual digitalobjects separately from one another may facilitate review andmanipulation of digital objects on an individual basis. By way ofcomparison, a video camera that records all content in front of itwithout distinguishing between different persons and/or artifacts in thefield of view of the camera may not be able to facilitate review ofitems recorded at differing times, or interacting with objects in avideo after the video has been recorded. By storing digital objects inthe virtual space and capturing state changes of the artifacts and/ordigital objects, and interactions with the artifacts and/or digitalobjects, review of two different digital objects at two points in timemay be achieved.

Each virtual space in the data store may be associated with a givenproject, topic, product, and so forth. Thus, when a team working on, forexample, a given project associated with a virtual space concludes ameeting and later reconvenes, information associated with the virtualspace from the concluded meeting may be quickly recovered by loading thevirtual space and projecting digital objects 135 into the new meetinglocation. By way of illustration, if, during a first meeting, text waswritten on a white board and a set of post it notes were organized on adifferent wall, digital objects describing the text and post it notesmay be stored to corresponding locations of a virtual space. If thevirtual space is loaded at a later time, representations of the digitalobjects may be projected, effectively recovering a state of the previousroom.

In some examples, device 110 may also contain communication equipment(e.g., network card, Bluetooth functionality) to facilitate transmittinginformation associated with artifacts 130, and so forth. The informationassociated with artifacts 130 may be transmitted to, for example, aremote server, another device operating in a different location, and soforth. Alternatively, device 110 may contain memory (e.g., a hard disk)for storing information associated with artifacts 130. The informationassociated with artifacts may be stored, whether remotely or locally, asdigital objects in association with a virtual space. The communicationequipment may also facilitate controlling other electronic deviceswithin room 100, control of device 110 via other electronic devices, andso forth. Controlling other electronic devices may facilitate, forexample, device 110 causing representations of digital objects to beprojected into room 100 via, for example, monitors, screens, smartboards, and so forth within room 100.

As mentioned above, to facilitate reconstruction of artifacts into thenew meeting location, digital objects associated with a given virtualspace may be given “locations” within the virtual space. These locationswithin the virtual space may facilitate preservation of, for example,relative spatial relationships between artifacts and people over time.

To facilitate preservation of these spatial relationships, it may beimportant for device 110 to calibrate room 100 to the virtual space. Insome examples, this may mean orienting the virtual space to room 100 sothat representations of digital objects projected back into room 100 areprojected onto suitable locations within room 100. By way ofillustration, it may be difficult for people 120 to view and/or interactwith representations of digital objects 135 projected onto windows.Similarly, it may be preferable to select projection locations on wallsthat are largely free from obstructions and/or decorations to ensurerepresentations of digital objects are projected clearly and ontosuitable surfaces within room 100 (e.g., blank white walls). Calibratingroom 100 may also facilitate detecting artifacts 130 within room 100 sothat digital objects for artifacts 130 can be stored to the virtualspace. Calibrating room 100 may also facilitate adjusting for lightsources and/or ambient light in room 100, manipulating projected digitalobjects and/or projected people based on colors of surfaces onto whichthey will be projected, and so forth.

Various techniques may be used to calibrate room 100 to the virtualspace. For example, device 110 may contain various sensors (e.g.,infrared sensors for distance mapping), logics and so forth foridentifying attributes of room 100 so that room 100 can be calibrated tothe virtual space.

As an artifact is interacted with and modified over time, theinteractions and attributes may be recorded by device 110 and associatedwith a corresponding digital object in a virtual space. When arepresentation of the artifact is ultimately projected, therepresentation projected may be associated with a specific state orprior interaction. This may facilitate reviewing a variety of priorstates of the artifact, discussions relating to the artifact, and/orchanges made to the artifact over time.

In FIG. 1, device 110 is illustrated as seated atop a table within room100. In this example, device 110 may be a mobile unit that can betransported from room 100 to a different room as necessary if people 120need to continue their meeting at another location or time. This mayallow many different spaces to be converted into a meeting room tohandle relocations, space availability issues, and so forth.

In another example, device 110 may be built into the conference roomallowing the creation of designated collaboration rooms. Thoughdesignated collaboration rooms may create a limited resource that iscompeted over by various projects within an organization, there may bereasons for using designated collaboration rooms over mobile units. Forexample, a room built to house a device may be able to be designed tobetter accommodate recording and/or projection equipment. For example,projectors hung from the ceiling may create larger projections than oneplaced on a surface (e.g., a table) within a room. Further, for thepurpose of this application, the term “projecting” as used with respectto a digital object includes displaying the digital object, as arepresentation of a digital object projected onto a segment of a wallmay be functionally equivalent to a representation of a digital objectdisplayed on a monitor on a wall instead. Additionally, a designatedspace may be designed so that surfaces within the room are more amenableto preserving spatial relationships of artifacts within a digitalrepresentation of the room (e.g., in a virtual space).

In room 100, three people 120 are having a meeting discussing a topic(e.g., a project, a problem, a product). The people are interacting withartifacts 130 including text on a white board, and a set of post itnotes. Additionally, device 110 is also projecting several projectedpeople 125 and projected digital objects 135 into room 100. As mentionedabove, device 110 may treat people 120 as though they were alsoartifacts for the purposes of capturing digital objects associated withthe people 120 and/or projecting representations of the people 120. Theprojected people 125 and projected digital objects 135 may be associatedwith digital objects in a virtual space that were captured during aprevious meeting. Consequently, some of the projected people 125 may beprojections of some of the people 120 currently in room 100. Thus,device 110 may allow the people 120 to review their previousconversations and interactions with artifacts from a previous meeting.This may reduce information loss between meetings and enhanceproductivity.

Alternatively, the projected people and projected artifacts may be in aseparate room with their own device that is in communication with device110. Consequently, device 110 may be interacting with a virtual spacethat is being used by multiple groups of people 120 simultaneously. Oncerooms are calibrated to the virtual space, artifacts 130 and people 120may be projected into other rooms as projected people 125 and projecteddigital objects 135 to facilitate synchronous communication. This typeof synchronous communication may be desirable when all parties do notfit in a single room, or parties are spread among different physicallocations (e.g., in different cities).

Using recording equipment, device 110 may record interactions of people120 with artifacts 130, projected digital objects 135, and so forth inroom 100. These interactions may include modifying artifacts 130,creating artifacts 130, removing artifacts 130, discussing artifacts130, and so forth. These interactions may then be stored in device 110or transmitted to a remote server storing a virtual space.

By way of illustration, consider the person 120 in room 100 interactingwith the notes attached to the wall. In one example, each note may betreated as an individual artifact. If the person interacting with thenotes rearranges the notes or modifies a note (e.g., by writing on thenote), device 110 may record these interactions and/or modifications andcause these modifications to be stored as digital objects in a virtualspace.

In other examples, device 110 may facilitate projection of artifacts 130and/or interactions with artifacts 130 at a later time and/or in adifferent room. By way of illustration, if the people 120 in room 100have time limited schedules but plan to reconvene the next day in adifferent room, device 110 may allow the people 130 to resume theirmeeting by projecting representations of digital objects into thedifferent room. Consequently, because the different room may havedifferent features (e.g., the different room has windows while room 100does not), device 110 may identify suitable locations within thedifferent room at which to project the representations. This maypreserve meeting states over time so that meetings regarding projectscan continue where they left off and so artifact states and/ordiscussions may be reviewed as necessary.

These features may add additional functionality beyond some meeting roomsetups involving a set of video recording equipment and either a set ofdisplays (e.g., televisions, monitors) or projectors. Though meetings inthese types of rooms may be recorded, the recordings may notindividually track components over time and preserve state changes.Consequently, such a setup, if recording functionality exists at all,might require replaying everything going on in one of these rooms,without being able to separate and control review of individualcomponents on their own. Additionally, if preserving a meeting state atthe end of a meeting is desirable, certain artifacts may need to bepreserved. Though maintaining a model may be easy, maintaining noteswritten on a whiteboard may require more effort. If the notes have beencaptured over time by device 110, the notes may be automaticallypreserved and recovered once the appropriate virtual space is loadedusing device 110 (or a similar device).

Various techniques may be used by people 120 to interact with device 110for the purpose of designating artifacts in room 100 and/or interactingwith the artifacts in a manner that will be preserved by device 110 asdigital objects. By way of illustration, having specified commands forcontrolling device 110 may prevent device 110 from inadvertentlytreating room decorations or unrelated materials within room 100 asrelevant artifacts 130 to be preserved and projected.

These commands may include, for example, gesture commands, oralcommands, commands received from input devices, and so forth. Gesturecommands may be detected using, for example, the recording devices beingused to track interactions with artifacts, skeleton tracking, and soforth. Oral commands may be detected using, for example, a microphonewithin device 110. Input devices may include, for example, pointerdevices (e.g., laser pointer), wearable technology, tablets, personalcomputers, other computing devices, and so forth. In some cases, smarttechnology (e.g., Bluetooth enabled touch screen) may also facilitatecommand input to device 110. Contextual information may also beconsidered by device 110. By way of illustration, if a participantbegins interacting with an item in a physical location not previouslytreated as an artifact, device 110 may create a digital objectassociated with the item and begin treating the item as an artifact.

It is appreciated that, in the following description, numerous specificdetails are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of theexamples. However, it is appreciated that the examples may be practicedwithout limitation to these specific details. In other instances,methods and structures may not be described in detail to avoidunnecessarily obscuring the description of the examples. Also, theexamples may be used in combination with each other.

“Module”, as used herein, includes but is not limited to hardware,firmware, software stored on a computer-readable medium or in executionon a machine, and/or combinations of each to perform a function(s) or anaction(s), and/or to cause a function or action from another module,method, and/or system. A module may include a software controlledmicroprocessor, a discrete module (e.g., ASIC), an analog circuit, adigital circuit, a programmed module device, a memory device containinginstructions, and so on. Modules may include one or more gates,combinations of gates, or other circuit components. Where multiplelogical modules are described, it may be possible to incorporate themultiple logical modules into one physical module. Similarly, where asingle logical module is described, it may be possible to distributethat single logical module between multiple physical modules.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example apparatus 200 associated with room captureand projection. Apparatus 200 includes an information management module210. Information management module 210 may maintain informationregarding a virtual space and a first digital object. The first digitalobject may be maintained within the virtual space. The first digitalobject may be associated with an artifact in a physical space. In oneexample, information management module 210 may include a data store. Inthis example, information management module 210 may maintain informationregarding the virtual space and the first digital object in the datastore. Consequently the data store may contain many virtual spaces anddigital objects associated with the virtual spaces. Each virtual spacemay be associated with, for example, a topic, a project, a user, and soforth. In another example, information management module 210 maymaintain information regarding the virtual space and the first digitalobject by communicating data regarding the virtual space and the firstdigital object to a remote server.

Apparatus 200 also includes a room calibration module 220. Roomcalibration module 220 may map the virtual space to the physical space.Room calibration module 220 may map the virtual space to the physicalspace using sensors to detect attributes of the physical space. Theattributes may include, for example, suitable locations for projectionof items (e.g., digital objects) associated with the virtual space, asize of the physical location, distances to walls in the physicallocation, a baseline state of the physical location, and so forth.Calibrating the virtual space to the physical space may facilitatecapturing artifacts in the physical space to the virtual space andprojecting representations of digital artifacts into the physical spaceat locations that correspond between the physical space and the digitalspace.

Apparatus 200 also includes a capture module 230. Capture module 230 mayrecord a modification to the artifact. Consequently capture module 230may comprise components to facilitate capture of, for example, audio,video, still images, and so forth, associated with the artifact. Themodification to the artifact may be maintained by information managementmodule 210. In various examples, the modification to the artifact may bemaintained in association with the digital object in the virtual space.

For example, upon initially detecting the artifact, capture module 230may provide data to information management module 210 that causesinformation management module 210 to create the digital object, and tostore data regarding a first state of the artifact. Upon detecting themodification to the artifact, capture module 230 may provide data toinformation management module 210 that causes information managementmodule 210 to store data regarding the second state of the artifact.

The modification to the artifact may be, for example, moving theartifact to a different location within the physical space, destroyingthe artifact, creating the artifact, interacting with the artifact, andso forth. Different modifications may be possible depending on the typeof artifact being recorded. For example, text written on a white boardmay be added to, erased, and so forth. A slideshow may be advanced andso forth. A person being treated as an artifact may move around theroom, interact win other artifacts, and so forth.

Apparatus 200 also includes a projection module 240. Projection module240 may project a representation of a second digital object into thephysical space. The second digital object may be projected based on asignal from information management module 210. In the example above,where information management module 210 communicates with a remoteserver regarding the virtual space and the first digital object, theremote server may also communicate with a second apparatus that providesdata to the remote server regarding the second digital object. In thisexample, the remote server may then provide data regarding the seconddigital object to information management module 210, and this data maythen foe used as the basis for the projection of the second digitalobject by projection module 240. The projection may facilitateinteracting with the representation of the digital object. In this case,capture module 230 may provide information regarding these interactionsto information management module 210, which may store the interactionsin association with the digital object in the virtual space. In caseswhere a second apparatus is providing data regarding a second digitalobject, the second apparatus may be in a second physical space capturingartifacts and projecting digital objects. Consequently, the apparatusand the second apparatus may facilitate synchronous communicationbetween people in different physical spaces.

FIG. 3 illustrates an apparatus 300. FIG. 3 includes many items similarto those described above with reference to apparatus 200 (FIG. 2). Forexample, apparatus 300 includes an information management module 310, aroom calibration module 320, a capture module 330, and a projectionmodule 340.

Apparatus 300 also includes a communication module 350. Communicationmodule 350 may facilitate communication between apparatus 300 and otherdevices within a physical space. In various examples, communicationmodule 350 may use, for example, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, UniversalSerial Bus, and so forth to facilitate communication between apparatus300 and other devices within the physical space. Communication module350 may facilitate, for example, control of apparatus 300, apparatus 300controlling other devices, and so forth. Communication module 350 mayalso facilitate communication between apparatus 300 and otherapparatuses in the same room, remote apparatuses, remote servers, and soforth.

Apparatus 300 also includes a base module 360. Base module 360 mayprovide shared services to other modules. These services may include,for example, cooling, power, and so forth. In some examples, base module360 and/or other modules may be configured so that modules attach to oneanother in essentially a plug-and-play fashion requiring minimal setupbefore beginning normal operation once attached to other modules.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example method 400 associated with room captureand projection. Method 400 may be embodied on a non-transitorycomputer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions. Theinstructions, when executed by a computer, may cause the computer toperform method 400. In other examples, method 400 may exist within logicgates and/or RAM of an application specific integrated circuit.

Method 400 includes calibrating a capture device and a projection deviceat 410. The capture device and the projection device may be calibratedto a virtual space and to a physical space. The capture device and theprojection device may be calibrated based on attributes of the virtualspace. The capture device and the projection device may also becalibrated based on attributes of the physical space. The capture deviceandi. the projection device may also be calibrated based on locations ofthe capture device and the projection device within the physical space.

Calibrating the capture device and the projection device to the physicalspace may include examining a first state of the physical space.Calibrating the capture device and the projection device to the physicalspace may also include storing a baseline state of the physical spacebased on the first state. The baseline state may include informationdescribing, for example, light sources, color levels, controllableelectronic equipment within the physical space, potential suitableprojection locations within the physical space, and so forth. In oneexample, when calibrating the capture device and the projection deviceto the physical space, it may be desirable to examine several states ofthe physical space over time, and to store the baseline state based onthe several states.

Method 400 also includes capturing a first digital object at 420. Thefirst digital object may be captured using the capture device. The firstdigital object may be captured to a virtual space. The first digitalobject may be associated with an artifact in the physical space. Thismay facilitate preserving information regarding state changes of thedigital object, allowing states of the digital object to be reviewedand/or interacted with.

Method 400 also includes projecting a representation of a second digitalobject at 430. The second digital object may be projected from thevirtual space into the physical space. The second digital object may beprojected using the projection device. In various examples, the seconddigital object may have been stored by capturing information regardingan artifact from, for example, a previous time, a different physicalspace, and so forth.

FIG. 5 illustrates a system 500. System 500 may be made up of a set ofinterconnecting and stacking wedges. The wedges may be, for example,stacked vertically to add components to system 500. In various examples,adding wedges in differing orientations may increase room coverage ofcertain features of wedges described below. The set of wedges includesan information management wedge 510. Information management wedge 510may store information regarding a virtual space.

The set of wedges also includes a capture wedge 520. System 500illustrates an example set of wedges containing two capture wedges 520.Capture wedges 520 may include a capture device (e.g., capture device522, capture device 524). Different capture wedges 520 may includedifferent types and/or numbers of capture devices. For example capturedevice 522 may be a low quality video camera, and capture device 524 maybe a high qualify still camera. High quality still cameras may bevaluable for capturing high quality images of artifacts in a room thatremain unchanged for a period of time to preserve detailed informationregarding the artifacts. Lower quality video cameras may be suitable forcapturing data regarding artifacts that are frequently moving and/orbeing modified (e.g., people). The capture devices may captureinformation regarding a first artifact. The first artifact may residewithin a physical space. The information captured regarding the firstartifact may be stored in the virtual space as a first digital object.

The set of wedges also includes a projection wedge 530. Projection wedge530 includes a projection device 535. As illustrated here, projectionwedge 535 contains two projection devices, though other projectionwedges may have a larger or smaller number of projection devices. Theprojection device may project a representation of a second digitalobject from the virtual space into the physical space.

System 500 also includes a connection interface 540. Connectioninterface 540 may facilitate securely connecting members of the set ofwedges. System 500 also includes a communication interface (not shown).The communication interface may facilitate communication between wedges.In one example, the connection interface 540 may ensure thecommunication interface operably connects the wedges. In this example,the communication interface 540 may be built into the connectioninterface. Additionally, the wedges and the communication interface mayoperate in several stacked configurations of the wedges. By way ofillustration, though system 500 is illustrated with capture wedges 520stacked above projection wedge 530, system 500 may also operate withprojection wedge 530 above the capture wedges. Depending on attributesof differing physical spaces in which system 500 operates, it may bedesirable to stack wedges in differing configurations as system 500 ismoved from physical space to physical space.

Other wedges may also be designed to operate with system 500. Thisexample version of system 500 is illustrated with a wedge 550 which mayperform a variety of functions. For example, wedge 550 may record and/orplay audio, control other electronic devices within the physical space,provide memory to other wedges, store the virtual space and/or digitalobjects, and so forth.

The example version of system 500 also includes a base wedge 560. Basewedge 560 may provide shared resources to other wedges. The sharedresources may include, for example, power, cooling, and so forth. Insome examples, base wedge 560 may also facilitate communication betweensystem 500 and external devices.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example computing device in which example systemsand methods, and equivalents, may operate. The example computing devicemay be a computer 600 that includes a processor 610 and a memory 620connected by a bus 630. The computer 600 includes a room capture andprojection module 640. Room capture and projection module 640 mayperform, alone or in combination, various functions described above withreference to the example systems, methods, apparatuses, and so forth. Indifferent examples, room capture and projection module 640 may beimplemented as a non-transitory computer-readable medium storingcomputer-executable instructions, in hardware, software, firmware, anapplication specific integrated circuit, and/or combinations thereof.

The instructions may also be presented to computer 600 as data 650and/or process 660 that are temporarily stored in memory 620 and thenexecuted by processor 610. The processor 610 may be a variety of variousprocessors including dual microprocessor and other multi-processorarchitectures. Memory 620 may include non-volatile memory (e.g., readonly memory) and/or volatile memory (e.g., random access memory). Memory620 may also be, for example, a magnetic disk drive, a solid state diskdrive, a floppy disk drive, a tape drive, a flash memory card, anoptical disk, and so on. Thus, memory 620 may store process 660 and/ordata 650. Computer 600 may also be associated with other devicesincluding other computers, peripherals, and so forth in numerousconfigurations (not shown).

It is appreciated that the previous description of the disclosedexamples is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make oruse the present disclosure. Various modifications to these examples willbe readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the genericprinciples defined herein may be applied to other examples withoutdeparting from the spirit or scope of the disclosure. Thus, the presentdisclosure is not intended to be limited to the examples shown hereinbut is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principlesand novel features disclosed herein.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus, comprising: an informationmanagement module to maintain information regarding a virtual space anda first digital object within the virtual space, wherein the firstdigital object is associated with an artifact in a physical space; aroom calibration module to select at least one surface of a plurality ofsurfaces of the physical space on which to project the virtual spacebased on information from sensors that indicates attributes of thephysical space; a capture module comprising a camera to record images ofthe artifact, wherein the capture module is to detect a modification tothe artifact based on the images, and wherein the modification to theartifact is maintained by the information management module; and aprojection module to project, based on a signal from the informationmanagement module, a representation of a second digital object into theat least one selected surface of the plurality of surfaces of thephysical space; wherein the information management module is further tostore first state information of the first digital object thatrepresents a first state of the artifact at a first time, and secondstate information of the first digital object that represents a secondstate of the artifact at a second time, wherein the first state of theartifact is determined upon initial detection of the artifact in thephysical space by the capture module, wherein the second state of theartifact is determined upon detecting a modification to the artifact, bythe capture module, present in the first state, wherein the first stateand the second state are different from one another, and wherein themodification includes at least one of: moving the artifact to adifferent location within the physical space, destroying the artifact,creating the artifact, and interacting with the artifact; and whereinthe projection module is further to project a representation of thefirst state or the second state of the artifact into the at least oneselected surface of the plurality of surfaces of the physical spacebased on a request to provide the first state or the second state. 2.The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the capture module comprisescomponents to facilitate capture of one or more of: audio, video, andstill images associated with the artifact.
 3. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein the information management module includes a data store, andwherein the information management module maintains informationregarding the virtual space and the first digital object in the datastore.
 4. The apparatus of claim 1, where the information managementmodule maintains information regarding the virtual space and the firstdigital object by communicating data regarding the virtual space and thefirst digital object to a remote server.
 5. The apparatus of claim 4,wherein the remote server also communicates with a second apparatus thatprovides data to the remote server regarding the second digital object,and wherein the remote server provides the data regarding the seconddigital object to the information management module.
 6. The apparatus ofclaim 1, comprising a base module to provide services to other modules,wherein the services include cooling and power.
 7. The apparatus ofclaim 1, comprising a communication module to facilitate communicationbetween the apparatus and other devices within the physical space. 8.The apparatus of claim 7, where the communication module facilitatescommunication between the apparatus and the other devices using at leastone of: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and Universal Serial Bus.
 9. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein the attributes comprise at least oneattribute that indicates that a surface of the physical space should notbe used to project the virtual space, and wherein the at least onesurface is selected based further on the indication that the surface ofthe physical space should not be used to project the virtual space. 10.The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the at least one attribute comprisesinformation indicating that the surface comprises one or more windowsthat should be avoided.
 11. A method, comprising: calibrating a capturedevice and a projection device to a virtual space and to a physicalspace based on attributes of the virtual space, attributes of thephysical space, and locations of the capture device and the projectiondevice within the physical space, wherein the capture device comprises acamera; selecting at least one surface of a plurality of surfaces of thephysical space on which to project the virtual space based on thecalibration; capturing, using the camera, images of an artifact in thephysical space; detecting a modification to the artifact based on theimages; projecting, using a projection device, from the virtual spaceinto the at least one selected surface of the plurality of surfaces ofthe physical space, a representation of a second digital object; storingfirst state information of a first digital object that represents afirst state of the artifact at a first time, and second stateinformation of the first digital object that represents a second stateof the artifact at a second time, wherein the first state of theartifact is determined upon initial detection of the artifact in thephysical space by the camera, wherein the second state of the artifactis determined upon detecting a modification to the artifact, by thecamera, present in the first state, wherein the first state and thesecond state are different from one another, wherein the modificationincludes at least one of: moving the artifact to a different locationwithin the physical space, destroying the artifact, and interacting withthe artifact; and projecting a representation of the first state or thesecond state of the artifact into the at least one selected surface ofthe plurality of surfaces of the physical space based on a request toprovide the first state or the second state.
 12. The method of claim 11,wherein calibrating the capture device and the projection device to thephysical space comprises: examining a first state of the physical space;and storing a baseline state of the physical space based on the firststate of the physical space.
 13. The method of claim 12, wherein thebaseline state includes information describing at least one of: lightlevels, light sources, color levels, controllable electronic equipmentwithin the physical space, and potential suitable projection locationswithin the physical space.
 14. The method of claim 11, whereincalibrating the capture device and the projection device to the physicalspace further comprises examining several states of the physical spaceover time, and wherein the baseline state is also stored based on theseveral states.
 15. The method of claim 11, further comprisingmanipulating the projected representation of the second digital objectbased on colors of the at least one selected surface of the plurality ofsurfaces of the physical space surfaces onto which the second digitalobject is projected.
 16. A system, comprising: a set of interconnectingstacking wedges comprising: an information management wedge to storeinformation regarding a virtual space; a capture wedge having at least afirst camera and at least a second camera configured to produce an imagehaving a different image quality than an image produced by the firstcamera, the first camera to capture images regarding a first artifact ina physical space to be stored in the virtual space as a first digitalobject, and the second camera to capture images regarding a secondartifact in the physical space to be stored in the virtual space as asecond digital object, wherein the capture wedge is to detect amodification to the first artifact based on the images, and wherein themodification to the artifact is maintained by the information managementwedge; and a projection wedge having a projection device to project arepresentation of the first digital object and the second digital objectfrom the virtual space into the physical space; a connection interfacethat facilitates securely connecting members of the set of wedges; and acommunication interface that facilitates communication between thewedges, where the connection interface ensures the communicationinterface operably connects the wedges; wherein the informationmanagement wedge is further to store first state information of thefirst digital object that represents a first state of the first artifactat a first time, and second state information of the first digitalobject that represents a second state of the first artifact at a secondtime, wherein the first state of the artifact is determined upon initialdetection of the artifact in the physical space by the first camera,wherein the second state of the artifact is determined upon detecting amodification to the artifact, by the first camera, present in the firststate, wherein the first state and the second state are different fromone another, wherein the modification includes at least one of: movingthe artifact to a different location within the physical space,destroying the artifact, and interacting with the artifact; and whereinthe projection wedge is further to project a representation of the firststate or the second state of the first artifact into the physical spacebased on a request to provide the first state or the second state. 17.The system of claim 16, wherein the wedges and the communicationinterface operate in several stacked configurations of the wedges. 18.The system of claim 16, comprising a base wedge to provide sharedresources to other wedges including power and cooling, and wherein thebase wedge facilitates communication between the system and externaldevices.
 19. The system of claim 16, wherein the first camera is tocapture artifacts in motion at a first image quality and the secondcamera is to capture artifacts not in motion at a second image qualityhigher than the first image quality.